Rebranding

My recent tasks have revolved around working with the Art Director on rebranding the company; new logo, brand statements, a major site facelift, and so forth. It's not just about the corporate brand - we're also working to change our own internal identity, and I've learned a lot simply through experiencing the creative backend required on such a task. It's a somewhat daunting task because we've been given five sprints of two weeks each to accomplish not only the branding but tech features and whatnot as well, in time to present at GDC Austin in September.

Working with the backdrop of two pre-existing brands (one of which has already had a facelift), both with troubled pasts, makes things much more complicated - particularly when you intend to expand your audience.

We started with mood boards, which we've tightened and refined somewhat; product, tech, and audience. Our magazines, unfortunately, were rather limited; I didn't have much to contribute other than Game Developer, Maxim, and Playboy (the latter of which I didn't bring, for obvious reasons). The Art Director brought in some design mags and artsy stuff, and we had some back issues of EGM lying around, but that was it - I think he also brought in a couple of his wife's fashion and entertainment mags. I guess that says a lot about our magazine habits?

The product board follows a gradient from hardcore to casual - dark bloody reds, earthy tones, into rainbows and unicorns and so forth. CoD4 to Peggle, that sort of thing. Tech was a bit more difficult; we were looking for a sense of sleek, easy to use, intuitive; I'd have summed that up with an image of the iPod, but I think we were also trying to pull interface ideas. The audience board also goes all over the place, but I think what we really wanted to go for was the feel of identity and independence. Guys in suits, punk rockers, little girls chewing bubblegum. The three boards were the basis of our color palettes and some basic logo ideas.

What I really got out of the mood boards was that projection can be fatal. Having been lead and assisted with jumpstarting several projects, I've noticed a lot of "well, it would be cool if..." oriented around users and community. It's a common enough problem; given the leeway, leads may show a tendency to project wishes to the point where it interferes with the original goals. I was guilty of this in a previous community development attempt; given a free hand, I attempted to orient towards an older, more mature community - the kind that I myself prefer to participate in. This was not what I should have expected or even wanted to accomplish, given our existing userbase; you can't expand your intended audiences too much too quickly, or you lose focus and turn them off in waves. You also can't really expect them to behave in any specific, given manner, even when provided explicit direction and guidance - but that also really depends on your pre-existing userbase (if any) and what habits have been ingrained, as they'll be the ones to direct incoming new users. This is why early community management is important, people!

That's another important lesson for companies that intend to expand; there's a fine line to walk if you intend to go deeper than simply being a portal like, say, Ijji and Nexon. Both are portal publishers for Asian online games, and feature a wide range of titles. The audiences can vary; the kids that play Kart Rider may very well be the ones populating Soldier Front, but what if you find that most of your buyers - and remember, this is in the context of an F2P market - are older, or prefer a certain look? What if they produce a sizable amount of revenue, but aren't the majority? Who do you cater to? Can you cater to everyone somehow?

I think Ijji's logo doesn't really say anything. Nexon's is kind of the three-dimensional, open-faced cube thing - I've grown used to it and made the assocation, but can a first-time viewer with no knowledge of the brand figure it out? Will they remember it? The challenge is hitting all your logo goals without beating any one point to death, while keeping an eye on all possible avenues, audience and location.

Logo thoughts we faced:
- Colors. A 'primary' color is important - VALVe just took orange, MS/Xbox has green, Nintendo's got gray and electric blue with the Wii, Sony's got blue. What about cultural associations? What about internationally? Some countries intensely favor or dislike specific colors.
- Typefont. Bold, strong? Friendly, soft? Generic? Memorable? Does it go well with the logo?
- Separation. How do the icon and brand name fare when separated? Do they still brand well?
- Individuality. Is it unique from other brand logos? Will we be compared to other brand logos? Will we be lost in the sea?
- Audience. How's this going to do with current and potential audiences?
- Previous branding attempts - how does this compare/contrast? Will the previous logo(s) and any branding they accomplished have an effect on the new logo's audience (the current users)?
- Man, I hope this doesn't look like ass on the business cards...

To close with some random thoughts, WIGI (Women in Games International) has some sort of mixer coming up in Los Angeles. I'm not active at all in the group, I'm just a member - but I have to wonder if I'd even want to meet up with a large group of women face to face. One of the advantages for me in the game industry is that I get to keep my preferred company of guys; I don't particularly enjoy making female friends, as we rarely have any personality traits or interests in common. I don't do my nails, I'm not particularly fond of shopping - you're more likely to find me at the Spearmint Rhino than you are at Southcoast Plaza.

That reminds me - I also need to write about Jade Raymond at some point.